Whether monitoring your existing strategy or considering including Bio-Augmentation to enhance that strategy, MI’s tools like QuantArray®, Census®, and NGS to better understand the current state of your site and more completely monitor your chosen strategy to ensure it is working as intended.
Chlorinated Solvents have widespread use in everything from Dry Cleaning to Industrial Processes. Between their manufacture, transport, use, storage and disposal there is significant opportunity for an accidental release to occur. The presence of chlorinated solvents in soil and groundwater poses a significant environmental and financial burden. These human-made chemicals, commonly used for degreasing and industrial purposes, pose a range of challenges, including:
1.Lower Property Value: Contamination significantly reduces property value. Potential buyers are wary of the health risks and the cost associated with remediation.
2. Increased Liability: Property owners, both current and past, can face legal liability for cleanup costs and potential health issues arising from exposure.
3. Regulatory Issues: Government regulations mandate the cleanup of contaminated sites, often with strict deadlines and specific remediation goals. Failure to comply can result in hefty fines and penalties.
4. Cost of Cleanup: Remediating chlorinated solvent contamination is expensive. Traditional methods like pump-and-treat systems can be time-consuming and energy-intensive.
Common Chlorinated Solvents:
- Trichloroethylene (TCE): A widely used degreaser, TCE is highly persistent and can break down into even more toxic daughter products like vinyl chloride.
- Perchloroethylene (PCE): Another common degreaser, PCE is often found in contaminated sites associated with dry cleaning operations.
- Methylene Chloride: Used in paint strippers and degreasers, methylene chloride is a potential carcinogen with health risks associated with inhalation.
Boosting Traditional Methods:
- Enhanced Degradation: Bioremediation with Dehalococcoides bacteria can degrade these daughter products completely, achieving a more thorough cleanup.
- Pre-Treatment: In some cases, bioremediation can be used as a pre-treatment before employing pump-and-treat.
- Improving Efficiency: Bioremediation can help traditional methods work faster and more efficiently. By degrading contaminants in-situ, bioremediation reduces the volume of water that needs to be treated with pump-and-treat systems.
Reaching Difficult Areas:
- Inaccessible Zones: Contaminants trapped in low-permeable zones or deeper fractures can be difficult to reach with some traditional methods. Microbes can naturally migrate through soil and groundwater, potentially reaching these areas and degrading contaminants.
Complementary Roles:
- Combined Approach: Bioremediation combines well with virtually every other remediation strategy out there. Chlorinated solvent bioremediation can occur in both anaerobic as well as aerobic environments, making it easy to pair with methods like in situ chemical oxidation or in situ chemical reduction. It can easily compliment mechanical methods as well, including pump and treat and thermal remediation.
- Post-Treatment: Bioremediation can be used as a post-treatment after traditional methods have removed the bulk of the contaminants. This can ensure complete cleanup and address residual contamination in a process known as “biopolishing”.
Overall Benefits:
- Cost-Effectiveness: Combining bioremediation with traditional methods can potentially decrease overall project costs. By enhancing traditional methods and reaching inaccessible zones, bioremediation can reduce the need for extended pump-and-treat operations and excavation.
- Sustainability: Bioremediation is a more environmentally friendly approach compared to some traditional methods. It relies on natural processes, has a low carbon footprint, and minimizes the generation of harmful byproducts.
- Complete Cleanup: By addressing both parent compounds and daughter products of chlorinated solvents, a combination of bioremediation and traditional methods can achieve faster site closure compared to using either method alone.
Important Considerations:
- Site-Specific Design: Developing an effective combined remedy approach requires a thorough understanding of the site’s characteristics, contaminant types, and geological conditions. This ensures optimal implementation of both bioremediation and traditional methods.
- Monitoring and Optimization: Continual monitoring of the remediation progress is crucial to ensure both bioremediation and traditional methods are performing effectively. Adjustments may be needed throughout the process for optimal results.
By leveraging the strengths of both traditional methods and microbiological tools, we can achieve a more efficient, cost-effective, and sustainable approach to chlorinated solvent remediation. Check out our advanced bioremediation techniques like QuantArray®, Census®, and NGS that break down the harmful chemicals below and more.
